


Where the Sand Meets the Sea

by Mithen



Category: DCU - Comicverse
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-03-30
Updated: 2010-03-30
Packaged: 2017-10-08 12:37:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,027
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/75728
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mithen/pseuds/Mithen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In the aftermath of the final battle against the Appallaxians (JLA:  Year One), J'onn and Arthur discuss the change in their relationship.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Where the Sand Meets the Sea

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into 中文 available: [沙与海相接之处](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5743777) by [Dinaria](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dinaria/pseuds/Dinaria)



> Takes place shortly after the events of JLA:  Year One, in which J'onn J'onzz investigates each of his teammates by shapeshifting and pretending to be their friend in order to gather information.

Arthur slipped through the jewel-bright water, light dancing turquoise and golden all around him, rainbow fish scattering before him.  It was good to be back in the sea, free and at ease for the first time since the great battle they had so narrowly won.  If it had not been for Martian Manhunter's willingness to sacrifice his sanity, the risk he had taken on himself...the JLA would either have had to admit defeat or live with genocidal blood on its hands.

 

  
At the thought of the Martian, Arthur found himself thinking of the images that had flooded into his mind at the moment he had stepped forward, first of the JLA, to lend his psychic support to J'onn.  _The ruby plains stretching on forever, fading into the scarlet haze at the horizon...crystal spires of impossible grace...the moons like tiny pearls rising above the vermilion sands...drifting crimson dust stretching into infinity..._

_   
_

  
Arthur shook his head, feeling the motion move his hair around him in wavering patterns.  Relations between J'onn and the rest of the League had stabilized but were still formal, somewhat distant.  Arthur wasn't sure how long it would take the JLA to be fully healed again.  Or if it ever would be.  For now, conversations were civilized, even friendly.  There was even laughter sometimes at the JLA base.

 

  
Only Arthur seemed to be haunted by dreams of shifting sand, of dryness, parched and longing.

 

  
&lt; My Lord?  Your thoughts are...strange. &gt; A dolphin rolled by lazily, its thoughts concerned.

 

  
&lt; I'm...fine. &gt; Arthur answered, although he was suddenly unsure.  The images cascaded through his mind again, _The clear, cold light on Mons Olympus...a dust storm blowing across the horizon, plumes miles high...arid beauty, the joy of empty spaces..._Arthur flailed against the viscous liquid around him, pressing against him, strange and unnatural, smothering him...a faint squeaking chirping and something was pushing him up, up out of the horrible clinging fluid, up to air and light and viridian hands that caught him up and carried him to a sandy beach, where he lay shaking, gasping for breath, struggling to come back to himself.

 

  
J'onn was sitting nearby, under a palm tree, his knees drawn up to his chin, looking oddly lost.  When Arthur pulled himself to a sitting position, the Martian spoke softly. 

 

"There are no seas on Mars."

 

 

Arthur considered the statement, dry and factual, for some time.  He nodded. 

 

  
J'onn gazed at him, scarlet eyes hooded.  "You came here to the surface world alone.  I had...rarely felt such loneliness as yours."  J'onn looked down.  "You thought you had found a human you could trust.  I betrayed your trust."

 

  
The sand under Arthur's hands was hot.  He looked down.  His hands were covered with glittering gold.

 

  
J'onn was continuing.  "When you were the first to step forward, to make the link and save my life, I felt..."  The Martian cocked his head to the side, considering.  "...I cannot translate it into an Earth word."

 

  
Arthur cleared his throat.  "Tell me directly.  Use your telepathy."

 

  
J'onn's eyes widened.  "May I?"

 

  
Arthur chuckled.  "Considering the visions I've been having, I suspect I'm going to have to get used to it at some point."

 

  
A flicker of surprise on the alien features and J'onn lowered his eyes.  A nudge of sensation at the edges of Arthur's mind, dry and delicate.  He opened himself up to it and felt a rush of emotion like surf breaking over  him..._remorseanguish/loneliness...forgiveness-embracedfriendship+plusand+..._the emotion cut off abruptly and left his mind aching from the contact--the contact, or the loss of it

 

Into the silence that fell, J'onn repeated softly, "There are no seas on Mars.  Yet for the last few weeks I have dreamed of places where the horizon meets the vast ocean and none can distinguish the shift in blue.  Of water rushing by me like crystal cloth, infinitely deep and gentle.  I...have dreamed." 

Arthur looked down again, at the water washing over his feet, the grains of sand in its wake obscuring and revealing his pale skin.  "You were the only surface dweller I trusted, the only one who seemed to trust and--and like me.  And it was a lie."

J'onn's response was quick. "My form was a lie.  My relationship to you was not."  When Arthur didn't answer he added, his deep voice rough, "Or...I had hoped it was not."

Arthur put his hands in the turquoise water, watched the sand wash away.  He stood up.  "Come here," he said, looking at the Martian, his voice level and his face expressionless.  When J'onn hesitated, he added softly, "I think you owe me that much."

J'onn walked the short distance to where Arthur stood, at the verge of the ocean.  As a wave lapped his feet he gasped and almost drew back, but kept moving forward until he stood in front of Arthur.  The waves licked around both of them, turning the sand under their feet to a cascade, slipping always away beneath them, unstable.  J'onn waited in front of Arthur as if expecting a blow.

Arthur reached out with a dripping hand and touched his fingers to the emerald skin of the Martian Manhunter's chest, tracing an intricate symbol in shining water:  the Martian word for "passionate friendship."  J'onn's eyes flickered, then burned steady again as Arthur finished writing and stood, one finger still touching the broad chest.

A slight smile lifted the corner of Arthur's mouth, transforming it from its usual reticence to that of a rather shy young man.  "I seem to have developed a...desire to learn more Martian," Arthur said lightly.

Unsmiling, J'onn lifted his hand to touch the other man's golden hair, to let one damp and shining curl wind around his finger.  "What would you like to learn?"

Arthur's green eyes were filled with mischief and invitation.  "Teach me what to say to a Martian to make him fall in love."

Lips as dry and cool as a moonlit desert touched Arthur's cheek, slid close to his ear.  A voice like wind on sand, caressing:  _"You_ need say nothing at all."


End file.
